BMA single review by Vince Leigh
Super-smooth electro sub-genres
Canberra-based music artist Luyah has released Remedy, the first track for the emerging alt-R&B soul singer-songwriter since his 2022 debut EP MIXED SIGNALS. The track’s opening synth swell quickly morphs into a super-smooth electro-shuffle, all augmented by a lone arpeggiator, an efficient bass groove and Luyah’s vocal ad-libs. The scene is set for a tempered appropriation of several sub-genres, including R&B, pop and EDM, with the melodic lines unifying them all and creating a track whose hooks, despite being potent enough, are arranged less predictably than one anticipates. Surprise drops and a series of mood changes contrast quite well with the clear-cut likability of the chorus and verse lines.
Highlighting a buoyant chorus
Kicking off with the chorus is always a resourceful approach, especially if such a chorus is a particular highlight, in which Remedy’s case, it is; this consists of sprightly single notes hitchhiked to the buoyant feel, which also features a vague melancholic attribute, at its tail end, fleeting but noticeable enough that it pulls this section away from complete pop surrender, with the resolve allowing the more soulful element to peak through.
Luyah’s influences, which include Childish Gambino, Frank Ocean, and Miguel, might seem detectable now and then—however, it is perhaps The Weeknd’s nighttime nuances that are more sonically prominent here, and in particular, as they pertain to Luyah’s vocal work, wielding those falsetto notes persuasively and most effectively in the drop before the second round of choruses when this application sounds subtly eerie and gives the following hook a reinvigorated glimmer.
Remedy attempts to merge a contemporary R&B approach—the vocals, the soundscape—to a more traditional, almost retro-pop array of melodies, and it’s not only the assured inventions of these lines and choices or the impermeable production job that help it achieve this aim, but Luyah’s poised execution.
You can hear this track on Spotify or Apple Music
